Questions British History FOR Dummies PDF

Preview

Summary

Questions...

Description

UNIT 4: THE RENAISSACE 1-Summarise Henry VIII´s reasons for divorcing Katherine of Aragon(p.168). Katherine of Aragon married Henry VIII, they were happy in their marriage until Katherine gave birth to their first child that turned out to be a girl, Mary, and that wasn’t what Henry wanted. Henry wanted so bad a son who will inherit the crown. Despite that fact, they didn’t give up their attempt to have a boy, but it didn’t end well. All the children that Katherine gave birth to, died. Because of that, Henry started to think if those children that unfortunately died were because of a curse. Then he realised that Katherine was firstly married to his dead brother. In spite of the fact that they had never consummated their marriage, Henry and Katherine were married in sin. Finally, Henry decided to divorce Katherine to avoid this curse and finally could have a son. 2-Write down the names of the other wives of Henry VIII and briefly describe how they died and whether they gave the King any children(pp.170-171). - Anne Boleyn : Anne was Henry’s debility, they had married in secret and they had a child, but she was a girl. That fact complicated the things in their relationship. Anne also had a lot of enemies in the court and they charged her with adultery with her own brother. Henry sent her to France to a special executioner who will cut off her head in one go. - Jane Seymour : she was Katherine and Henry's lady-in-waiting. They married when Katherine and Anne were already dead. She gave birth to Henry’s first son, Edward, he inherited syphilis from his father, but at least he lived. On the contrary, Jane didn’t end as well as her son, she died giving birth to him. - Anne of Cleves : she was a German Princess and they married by force. Thomas Cronwall, Henry's chief minister, made them married because in that way they will link up the German Protestants against the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Finally the emperor changed his mind about attacking England. Because of that Henry divorced her (he didn’t really like her) and then he cut off Cronwall’s head. They hadn’t any children. - Catherin Howard : Catherine was 19 when he married the 49 years old Henry. She was in love with another boy before marrying Henry (Thomas Culpeper). They still meet each other despite Catherine's marriage. Finally, Henry found it out and executed both of them. They didn't have any child. - Catherine Parr : She was the only one who survived, she was a very ambitious woman who was really helpful to England during the time Henry was away and she was very determined to make England a Protestant country. Her protestant ideals were also very influential to her stepdaughter, Elisabeth. 3-Summarise the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I (pp.170-171). Edward VI was the first son of Henry VIII and heir to the crown. But Edward was only 9 when he hearl the crown so he had as “protector” his uncle the Duke of Somerset, best known as the “Good Duke”. He was loved by the common people because his “fight” against the nobles. But two big rebellions cathed him by surprise, one in Devon and Cornwall about religion and another in East Anglia. It was too much for him and his enemies wanted to kill him so

he decided to move away with Edward to Hampton Court. But there was another person who badly wanted the English throne: the Duke Northumberland, and he also wanted to make England Protestant. However, Edward died and Mary (Katherine of Aragon daughter) was the hearl to the crown. Mary was a really catholic person and it will take consequences for the protestants. To prevent it from happening Northumberland married off his son to Jane Grey (she was from Tudor’s dynasty) and put her into the crown. However Mary didn’t want it to happen and she claimed the throne as daughter of Henry VIII. Mary married King Philip II of Spain who was deeply hated and Thomas Wyatt will lead a rebellion against him. But at the same time Philip was in war against France, that situation made England lose Calais. Some years later Mary died because of cancer without any descendance. The religious point in England will always be a mystery, are they Protestants or Catholics? Iguess we will never know. 4-Summarise the reign of Elisabeth I (the last Tudor monarch) (pp.175-176). Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn’s daughter, was put in the Tower by her sister Queen Mary because she thought Elizabeth was plotting against her. Elizabeth, therefore, knew all about how dangerous sixteenth-century politics could be. So she needed to see three things straight away: religion, security, and getting married. -Religion was urgent, and Elizabeth and Parliament set up a not-too-Protestant Church of England that she hoped both Catholics and Protestants could go to. -Security was always a problem, so the best way to guard against danger was to have an heir,and that meant that Elizabeth needed to find a husband. Here were her options: ❖ King Philip of Spain: The English couldn’t stand him, and if Elizabeth married him, England would become some sort of Spanish province. ❖ A French prince: This made political sense, because it would mess up France’s alliance with Scotland and put the King of Spain out of the picture. The French king sent the Duke of Anjou over, and Elizabeth seemed very interested, but eventually, he gave up and went home. ❖ Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: He was already married, to a lady called Amy Robsart, at least he was until they found Amy lying dead at the foot of the staircase one day. After that incident, no way could Elizabeth marry him. Whoever Elizabeth chose, there’d be trouble, so she decided not to choose. She would remain a virgin, married only to her people, and not share her power with anyone. Elizabeth didn’tlike talking about the succession, but other people had to due to the fact she had only been on the throne for a few years when she nearly died of smallpox. Her closest adviser, Sir William Cecil, was desperately worried and with good reason. First was the threat of Mary, Queen of Scots, who was already saying that she was the rightful Queen of England. Second, but even worse, was the major blow that fell in 1570 when the Pope excommunicated Elizabeth. In the case of monarchs, excommunication could mean that they had no right to be on the throne, and that loyal Catholics were allowed to overthrow them. The following are the Catholic plots to kill Elizabeth and put Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne: ❖ Revolt of the Northern Earls, 1569 : Revolt defeated; earls flee to Scotland; hundreds of their followers executed. ❖ Ridolfi Plot, 1571 : Roberto Ridolfi and the Duke of Norfolk plan a coup with help from Philip II of Spain and the Pope. The plot was discovered, and both plotters

executed. ❖ Jesuits, 1580 : Jesuit missionaries Robert Parsons and Edmund Campion arrive secretly in England and are suspected of plotting against the queen. Campion is arrested and executed; Parsons escapes to Spain. ❖ Throckmorton plot, 1584 : Catholic Francis Throckmorton was arrested and tortured. He reveals plot with Spanish ambassador to murder Elizabeth and stage a French invasion. Throckmorton was executed, and the ambassador sent home. These plots were getting more serious, so Cecil and Secretary of State, Sir Francis Walsingham, decided to keep a close watch on Mary. They read all her letters, which revealed that she was deeply affected by the Babington Plot. Catholic Anthony Babington plotted to murder Elizabeth, and he got Mary, Queen of Scots to agree to it. That’s when Cecil and Walsingham, who’d been reading Mary’s correspondence, decided to act. Even before the Babington Plot, Cecil was desperate for Elizabeth to put Mary to death. Keeping her alive was far too dangerous, but Elizabeth wouldn’t hear of it. Mary was her cousin, she was not an English subject, and she was a queen just like her. But Elizabeth could not ignore the Babington Plot. So Mary, Queen of Scots went on trial, and the court found her guilty. All they needed was a death warrant, and all that needed was Elizabeth’s signature. She did not want to sign the warrant, so her secretary put it in the middle of a lot of other papers that needed signing so that Elizabeth could ‘pretend’ she hadn’t known it was there. Mary, Queen of Scots was finally executed. 5-Describe the conflict with “The Spanish Armada”. In what year did the defeat of the armada take place? (pp.178-179). During Elizabeth’s reign is when the English first really started to be interested in boats for two main reasons: one was adventure, and the other was money. The Spanish were sitting on gold and silver mines in their colonies in South America, so sea dogs like John Hawkins and Francis Drake sailed to the Spanish colonies, opened fire, took what they could, and ran. All this experience was to be very useful for the English when Spain decided to turn the tables and attack England. By 1588, King Philip II of Spain had had enough. Not only were Drake and Hawkins and Co.attacking his ships, but Elizabeth was knighting them for it. Philip put together the largest fleet in history, the Great Armada , and sent it against England. The episode was a total disaster, everything went wrong. Philip’s best commander died, so he had to put the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who had never fought at sea, in charge. Then Drake suddenly appeared at Cadiz and burned the still harbour-bound fleet. Finally in 1588, the massive Armada set sail up the Channel in a tight crescent shape that the English weren’t able to break. What the English did instead was to prevent the Spanish from landing in England. The Spanish, kept on the move, had to put into Calais, which meant that they couldn’t pick up the powerful Spanish army in the Netherlands. Then the English sent fire ships into Calais harbour. Panicking, the Spanish scattered any which way, enabling the English to pick them off one by one. Then fierce storms forced the Spanish to keep going north, round Scotland and Ireland, where many of the ships sank. Less than half of Philip’s Grand Armada limped back to Spain. 6.Summarise Henry VIII´s Break with Rome and the establishment of the Church of England. Who is the head of the Anglican Church from that momento until now? (pp.187-188).

Henry VIII took a deep interest in theology, and he couldn’t stand Martin Luther. He even wrote a book pointing out exactly where he thought Luther had got his faith wrong. The Pope was so pleased that he gave Henry a special title, Fidei Defensor – ‘Defender of the Faith’. Yet despite Henry’s book and feelings about Luther, English scholars were getting interested in Luther’s ideas, and his books were beginning to find their way into Oxford and Cambridge, where the next generation of priests were being taught. Henry’s problems with the Pope were about what was termed The King’s Great Matter. Henry wanted the Pope to give him a divorce from his queen, Katharine of Aragon, so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. When the Pope did not approve, Henry decided to break away from the Roman Church and set up an English Church, with himself at its head. At first, all Henry wanted was a Church that would give him his divorce. To get that Church, he needed to cut the Pope out of the picture. So he started in 1532 with a set of laws to stop anyone from appealing to Rome and to stop any orders from the Pope coming into England. The laws also laid down that all of Henry’s subjects had to take an oath accepting Henry as head of the Church. Some people objected, such as Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher of Rochester; both refused to take the oath, and Henry had them both executed for it. Unsurprisingly, most people went along with him. Henry then struck out at one of the most popular pilgrimage cults in England: The shrine of St Thomas of Canterbury. This saint was the archbishop who had backed the Pope against King Henry II and became a martyr when King Henry’s men killed him in Canterbury Cathedral. So Henry had the shrine destroyed, and told everyone to do the same to any pictures or statues of St Thomas they may have. By 1536 Henry VIII had economic problems, so Thomas Cromwell, a Protestant and Henry’s chief minister, decided to close down all the monasteries. Monks were meant to be poor, but their monasteries sat on huge sums, some of it in land and some of it in treasures like gold and silver chalices. But they couldn’t just close the monasteries like that, so Cromwell sent his men out to investigate them. According to them, you could hardly move in the cloisters for bags of gold and monks ravishing maidens. This information was just what Cromwell needed to give the orders to shut the places down. His men even stripped the lead from the roofs, which is why to this day you can see those stark but beautiful ruins of great abbeys at Fountains and Rievaulx and Tintern in the green of the English and Welsh countryside. Closing the monasteries down provoked the most serious challenge Henry had to face in the whole of his reign: The Pilgrimage of Grace (popular uprising against Henry VIII’s break with the Roman Catholic Church, the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, and the policies of the King’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, as well as specific social, political, social and economic grievances). From this moment until now, the Head of the Anglican Church is the Supreme Head of the Church of England . (title created in 1531 for King Henry VIII).

7-Read the section on the Gunpowder Plot (p 201) an answer the following questions: -What were the main reasons for this Plot against James I?: The main reasons were that James I allowed his chief minister to reimpose heavy fines on Catholics and banish Catholic priests. -Who was Guy Fawkes?: Guy Fawkes was one of the conspirators who formed the Gunpowder Plot. When someone snitched, probably one of the conspirators, they found Guy Fawkes surrounded by barrels of gunpowder -On what date is The Gunpowder Plot remembered an how is it celebrated?:Nowadays people don´t take it too seriously and celebrate it each 5 November with big fireworks 8-Read section Dissolving Parliament which describes the origin of the Civil War between the supporters of the King Charles I (Cavaliers) and those of the Parliament and Oliver Cromwell (Roundheads) (pp.204-205).You should be able to have a clear idea of the origins of this Civil War by reading this paragraph closely.: The trouble of civil war started in Ireland, the Catholics rose up against all those Protestant plantations in Ulster and started massacring everyone they could find. Charles needed tropos to restore order, but Parliament wasn't sure it could trust him. So Charles arrested Pym, Hampden and three others and as a result Parliament told Charles to get lost. He decided he was going to re-take London by force, and the Parliament prepared to resist him. The result was the Civil War. 9-Read section “Heads you lose” (p.211-212) and answer the following questions: -In what year was King Charles I executed by order of the Parliament? On 30 January of 1649. -To what dynasty did Charles I belong? He belonged to the House of Stuart. 10-Read section “England becomes a Republic”(pp.212-213) and answer the following questions: -What was the name given to English Republic? Commonwealth of England. -Did Cromwell unify the Parliaments of England and Scotland into one? Yes. Cromwell unified Scotland and England into one country with one Parliament. -What was the title given to Cromwell:King or Lord Protector? Cromwell was given the title of Lord Protector. 11-Read section “Restoration Tragi-Comedy”(p.215) and answer the following question: Who was the King who restored the monarchy in England once the Republic was over? The King who restored the monarchy in England was Charles II.

12-The last Stuarts: Read the following sections: “1688:Glorious Revolution, Going Dutch,The Bill of Rights(pp.234-236), “Bad heir Day” (pp.238-239) and answer the following questions: -Who suceeded King Charles I? King Charles I was succeeded by Charles II. -How many children did James II have? What were their names? James II had 3 children: Mary, Anne and James Edward (named after his father). -Who married the eldest daughter of James II? William was James II’s son-in-law. He’d married James’ daughter Mary. -Was Mary´s husband Protestant or Catholic? Mary’s husband was one of the leading Protestant princes in Europe. -Why didn´t the Parliament want James II as King? To the English, one of James II’s worst crimes was the way he’d tried to rule without Parliament. They were going to make sure that no monarch -not even a protestant one- ever tried to do that again. -What is the main condition that the Bill of Rigths imposes on the following monarchs of England? Parliament said that William and Mary could only become king and queen if they agreed to a Bill of Rights, which said that they had to summon Parliament frequently, and the Catholics could not be king or queen or hold any official post. -What is the main content of the Act of Settlement?In what year was it signed? In 1701 Parliament passed the Act of Settlement, saying that the throne would pass in due course to the Electress Sophia (the living protestant wife of the dead German prince whose mother was James I’s daughter) and her heirs and successors, and must never ever go to a Catholic. -Who succeeded Mary II and William III? Mary II and William II were succeeded by Anne. 13-Read sections “Act Two of Union: Scotland”(pp.242-243) and “Act Three of Union: Ireland (pp.246-247) and answer trhe following questions: -In what year was the first Act of Union passed? It was passed in 1706. -Which two countries did this act unite? It united Scotland and England. -What was the name of the new country? United Kingdom of Great Britain. -In what year was the second Act of Union passed? It was passed in 1800. -What was the name of the new country? The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

UNIT 5: THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 1-The first Hanoverians.Read the following sections George,George,George and -erGeorge (pp.247-248) and answer the following questions:

-What title did George I hold before becoming King of Great Britain?Did he speak english? He hold the tittle of the Elector of Hanover. No, he couldn´t speak English. -Which of the three Georges lost the American colonies and ended up mad? George III. 2-Read the section “Whigs and Tories”(p.249) and answer thge following questiions: -Was the English monarchy the first Parliamentary monarchy in the World? Yes, it was. -What are the main characteristics of the political parties known as Whigs and Tories? The Whigs believed in the Hanoverian succession, the Parliament and equal rights for all Protestants, especially for the dissenters. The Tories believed in the Crown, freedom of religion for all (as long as they were in the Church of England) and horsewhipping dissenters. 3-Read section “Fighting the French: A national sport”(pp.250-251) and mention at least two wars in which Britain participated in the 18th century.Write down what happened in the two wars chosen. During the 18th century Britain participated in a lot of wars, in which the British and the French were always in opposite sides: War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). - War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714): Carlos II, King of Spain died without descendants, and he named Felipe, the grandson of King Louis XIV of France, his heir. The big problem was the fear of a possible union of the French and Spanish Crown. Most european countries ( England, Austria, Holland, Portugal…) made an alliance to stop it. This war ends with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), in which Britain got Gibraltar and Minorca, and lands in North America. - The Seven Years’ War (1756-63): It started with a German invasion of part of Poland, but the mean problem was the world domination by British or French. British Secretary of State fights the Frenche in India and North America, as well as in Europe. The British took Quebek, guadeloupe, drove the French out from India, beat them at the Battle of Minden and sank the French fleet in Quiberon Bay. 4-Read pp.253 to 262 about the Industrial Revolution and answer the following questions: -In what century did the Industrial Revoloution tak...